Species-specific immunity induced by infection with Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba moshkovskii in mice

Chikako Shimokawa; Richard Culleton; Takashi Imai; Kazutomo Suzue; Makoto Hirai; Tomoyo Taniguchi; Seiki Kobayashi; Hajime Hisaeda; Shinjiro Hamano

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082025

Species-specific immunity induced by infection with Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba moshkovskii in mice

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 29;8(11):e82025. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082025. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Chikako Shimokawa¹, Richard Culleton, Takashi Imai, Kazutomo Suzue, Makoto Hirai, Tomoyo Taniguchi, Seiki Kobayashi, Hajime Hisaeda, Shinjiro Hamano

Affiliation

¹ Department of Parasitology, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.

Abstract

Entamoeba histolytica, the parasitic amoeba responsible for amoebiasis, causes approximately 100,000 deaths every year. There is currently no vaccine against this parasite. We have previously shown that intracecal inoculation of E. histolytica trophozoites leads to chronic and non-healing cecitis in mice. Entamoeba moshkovskii, a closely related amoeba, also causes diarrhea and other intestinal disorders in this model. Here, we investigated the effect of infection followed by drug-cure of these species on the induction of immunity against homologous or heterologous species challenge. Mice were infected with E. histolytica or E. moshkovskii and treated with metronidazole 14 days later. Re-challenge with E. histolytica or E. moshkovskii was conducted seven or 28 days following confirmation of the clearance of amoebae, and the degree of protection compared to non-exposed control mice was evaluated. We show that primary infection with these amoebae induces a species-specific immune response which protects against challenge with the homologous, but not a heterologous species. These findings pave the way, therefore, for the identification of novel amoebae antigens that may become the targets of vaccines and provide a useful platform to investigate host protective immunity to Entamoeba infections.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Amebicides / pharmacology*
Animals
Entamoeba / drug effects
Entamoeba / immunology
Entamoeba / pathogenicity*
Entamoeba histolytica / drug effects
Entamoeba histolytica / immunology
Entamoeba histolytica / pathogenicity*
Entamoebiasis / immunology*
Male
Metronidazole / pharmacology
Mice
Mice, Inbred CBA
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Species Specificity
Weight Loss

Substances

Amebicides
Metronidazole

Grants and funding

The work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas from MEXT (21022037 to S.H.), http://www.mext.go.jp/english/, Grants-in-Aid for International Scientific Research (B) from JSPS (20406008, 23406009 to S.H.), http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html, a Health Labour Sciences Research Grant (H20-Shinkoh-Ippan-016, H23-Shinkoh-Ippan-014 to S.H.), http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/, the Takeda Foundation http://www.takeda-sci.or.jp/, the Uehara Foundation, (to S. H.) http://www.ueharazaidan.or.jp/, the Global COE Program, Nagasaki University, supported by MEXT (to S. H.) http://www.jsps.go.jp/j-globalcoe/ and the Sasakawa Foundation (Scientific Research Grant from The Japan Science Society) (to C.S.), http://www.jss.or.jp/ikusei/sasakawa/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.